Vandalised Royal British Legion Social Club is Sutton Bridge eyesore

Vicky Hills with broken glass from windows at the Legion club. SG240917-131TW

Questions are being asked about who is responsible for clearing up the mess at a long closed Royal British Legion Social Club where vandals have repeatedly smashed windows.

Former Sutton Bridge parish councillor Vicky Hills says windows are only part boarded-up, leaving the top lights exposed and they have been smashed over a number of weeks with glass left strewn across the car park in Gas House Lane.

Vicky said: “It’s a mess, an absolute mess.”

The former councillor doesn’t know who is responsible for safeguarding the building, the Legion or a nursery that has an advertising banner on site, but believes the car park may be in the care of South Holland District Council (SHDC).

Yesterday a spokesman for SHDC told us: “Our maintenance team are going to visit the site today and aim to clear up the glass under our Pride in South Holland initiative.”

The spokesman was unable to confirm who had responsibility for the site.

Both the Legion and the nursery have told us they are not responsible for maintaining the building.

The Legion owns the social club, which it closed down in 2013, but says it isn’t responsible for maintaining the building as it’s been leased to a nursery on a full repairing lease.

But a spokesman for the children’s nursery said the business will not be opening in Sutton Bridge and the nursery owner had “cancelled the lease and handed the keys back”.

Parish councillor David Summers told Tuesday’s Sutton Bridge Parish Council meeting: “It’s now fallen back into the hands of the Legion.”